The rent is low @ 2505 Sherbrooke E for a reason. It's 2505 Sherbrooke *Est*. The cross street is D'Iberville. The neighbourhood is not as central or safe for that matter.

Sherbrooke is totally fine as a street, but even a block or two south, you'll be venturing into an area that has some problems with drugs and mentally ill people.

I don't want to dramatize too much - I have a friend who lives nearby - it's not a ghetto or anything, but you have to have a bit of tolerance for all kinds of things. Also, linguistically, it may be difficult for you at first if you're a monolingual anglo. You won't hear English in that corner of Montreal.

Finally, this is nowhere near McGill (and realistically, beyond walking distance, unless you consider one hour walk as a walking distance), although it's on the green line and you can definitely bike it in the summer. The closest métro is Frontenac.

My main issue with the building (from the outside) is its grim look (unless you're into this kind of concrete architecture). Just like the neighbouring St-Marc buildings, it seems to be populated mostly by students and immigrants.

The neighbourhood is actually not bad - plenty of cheap places to eat nearby, the métro is only a few steps away (Guy/Concordia), near the mountain, etc.

How are the neighbours? Is everybody using it as a sort of a transitory pad and moving on somewhere else? The building looks somewhat under-populated. I've never seen more than one person downstairs and it's supposed to be a big building.

You haven't specified which kind of layout you're looking for, but with your budget you should have a lot of choices.

The only thing I noticed is that the amenities you require are typically found in high-rise buildings where apartments themselves are usually "nothing special". Those are plentiful around Concordia where a lot of buildings have gyms, parking, etc.

You can also look around the General Hospital (just north of Rue Sherbrooke). Over there, some buildings are a "step up" from the Concordia area.

You can also look into renting in a condo building (actually, with your budget, you might find it the best option because you can afford more than your typical student-infested rental but not quite enough to go "luxury building").

But as far as I know, nobody knows yet if the whole thing is going to be built. Obviously, the issue is a landmark building on De la Gauchetière which would be very close, but not only that - the rumour on the street is that the owner is the Edifice Beaver is against his building being demolished for the project. (This is not corroborated, though - so take it for what it's worth).

In other words, it's a case of "let's wait and see".

Personally, I think it's a good idea, especially the condo units, which are desperately needed to turn the Quartier International into a genuine neighbourhood, but as always, the devil is in the details.

Finally, somebody with a little common sense: Nathalie Collard wrote a little article in La Press which verbalizes a pretty obvious fact - LA VILLE SOUTERRAINE is NOT a tourist attraction! Stop promoting it as such!

Indeed, every damn tourist guide to Montreal is mentioning the impressive thing we have under our feet. Ok, may be it's impressive to some people. It may even be useful.

But let's face it - it's a pretty depressing little shelter which only exists because of the climate. Nobody would have constructed if it were not for the basic necessity to be warm in winter. It's boring, commonplace, mostly unattractive and has questionable smell at times. It's not a freaking attraction. Unless you consider LA's highways an attraction or New York's housing projects. It's there, it works (if it didn't, it wouldn't be there). Leave it out of the guidebooks.

In writing about UQAM's Îlot Voyageur debacle, Henri Aubin (The Gazette) makes a much bigger point: why is it that in Montréal, the largest projects seem to escape the careful analysis and public scrutiny that are the norm for smaller ones?

Sorry for responding late - I haven't checked the forum for a few days.

What are you looking for? A loft condo? How many units per building? I understand "comparable" as a genuine 19th century loft buildings with only a few units per building (NYC SoHo style). Is that what you're looking for? Or would you be open to new construction as well?